Broken But Healing
by ForeverAchild
Summary: After a devastating event changes the lives of Pepper Potts and Tony Stark, will they fall apart? Or will they learn that they are stronger together? (WARNING: contains dark themes)


Tony glanced around the room. Well, room was a nicer word for the place he was currently standing in. It was a pit really. He couldn't believe that they had kept her here. There wasn't even a bed, just a blanket thrown onto the floor. His heart broke at how cruelly she had been treated. The woman he had carried out of this building a few minutes prior was a completely different person to the sweet woman he had lost all those months ago. Why would somebody do this to her? He was the one who had started this whole thing, but then again the world never punished those who were truly guilty.

He remembered how broken she had looked. Her face had been beaten, as had the rest of her, the parts of her weren't bruised were smeared with blood and tears. He could see she was physically broken, but it was the look in her eyes that hurt him the most. Before she was taken they had been so full of life, but now all that joy was missing. He had expected to see her looking devastated and pained. Instead, her eyes were dull and empty. It was as if her soul had been removed from her body. When the army had stormed the building, she had cowered in the corner covering her ears and sobbing. Tony knew she was in a state of shock, far beyond reason. Still, it had hurt when she'd violently jerked away from him. God knows what horror she'd been through in the last month.

He exited the warehouse quickly, and jumped into the waiting car. "Hospital?" Happy asked him sadly.  
"Yeah." Tony muttered, and they didn't speak again for the rest of the drive. Instead Tony just pondered. He thought about how life was before all of this had started. He wondered when everything had started to fall apart. The build up to this had been gradual. So gradual, in fact, that he hadn't noticed until it was too late. Too late for him, too late for Pepper.

The car was silent, but he welcomed it. He knew Happy probably felt as bad as he did, and Happy hadn't even seen what Pepper looked like yet. Tony had. He couldn't get the image of her fragile, bruised body out of his head. Why had this happened? Nobody in their right mind would want to hurt Pepper. Pepper, who always made sure she smiled at everyone. Pepper, who did all of her work, and all of his without complaint. Pepper, who had won over the board, every interviewer she had ever met, all of her SI colleagues and basically the world. Tony Stark could not imagine anyone hating Pepper enough to hurt her as much as these men had.

Happy pulled up to the hospital. "You get out Boss, I just need to find somewhere to park."  
"Are you sure Happy? I know you were close with Pepper too?" Tony asked, knowing that it would be cruel to keep the bodyguard away from the woman inside the hospital.  
"100% Boss. You go and see what they're doing for our girl." Happy muttered- choking up a bit on the last sentence.  
"Will do." Tony said, before opening up the door and sprinting into the hospital.

Tony imagined he looked like a mad man as he sprinted through the double doors. Or someone trying to hard to get a role in a hospital drama. Either way he didn't care. If running meant he would get to Pepper faster then he would run everywhere until they let him see her. "Pepper Potts?" He panted to the receptionist.  
"Along the corridor to the left, second door on the right. She has a private room in that ward."  
He didn't pause to thank the woman, instead opting to take off running in the direction she had pointed to.

* * *

"Ah, Mr Stark." Pepper's doctor cleared his throat. Tony wasn't allowed into her room yet. This man had to brief him.  
"Is she okay? Is there something wrong? Do you know what happened to her?" The words fell out of Tony's mouth in a jumble.  
"Physically, Ms Potts is stable. She has two fractured ribs, a broken leg, a fractured collarbone, and we will give her some treatment for the bruises and scars. The swelling on her eye will go down in the next few days, and other than pain relief, there's not a lot we can do. They are currently performing a rape kit on her- to gather evidence for the court case."

"Good." Tony muttered. "Not that evidence is really necessary."

"Ms Potts is also severely underweight. Now we know she received very little food whilst in captivity, but for her to be this thin, she would have had to be dangerously underweight before the ordeal. I'm not sure if you would have picked up on her weight loss?" The doctor phrased his last sentence like a question, so Tony figured he should probably answer it. "Yes. She was very underweight before. I was trying to persuade her to see a doctor, I had been for a fortnight." Sadly, he thought back to all those arguments they had had. He hadn't seen Pepper actually eat for a while now.

"Well, we will have to keep her here for a little while to make sure she puts it back on. And there will be weekly checkups to make sure she is gaining weight. We will also check up on her injuries. Another thing you will have to do is take Ms Potts to see a therapist. I can recommend some good ones or you can find one yourself. Either way. She will need some serious help moving past this. The poor woman has been through a lot."

"Got it. Can I go in now?"

"Ah there's just one more thing Mr Stark. Ms Potts had a severe panic attack when she was first admitted, which is to be expected, but we had to sedate her so that we could examine and assess her injuries. She will wake up at some point in the next hour, but I didn't want you to worry about her lack of response."

"Okay." Pause. "So I can go in now?"

"Yes Mr Stark, you can."

* * *

As Tony entered the room, he finally let out a sigh of relief. She was bruised and battered and had been through hell, but Pepper was safe. She was alive. And that was the most important thing to him in the world. Her bed was in the corner, near to the window. The view wasn't great at the moment (it was raining) but Tony figured that when the sun came out she would have a great view of the sea. Pepper had always loved the sea. Tony knew she had grown up in Nebraska, and hadn't actually seen the sea until she moved to Malibu as an adult. Maybe that was why it was so special to her. She hadn't had it for so long.

Tony pulled up a chair and sat next to her. There was a lot of swelling and bruising around her eyes. He could see the figure of eight along that they had put on her collarbone to help it mend. One leg was wrapped in a cast and elevated slightly. Anger flooded into Tony's body. Whoever had tried to hurt her had clearly done their job properly. Tony knew that there were scars on her back. Scars from when the fucking assholes had whipped her.

The heart monitor beeped steadily, and Tony took some consolation from the fact that she wasn't scared at the moment. The sedative had done its job. For a while he just sat there. He didn't want to leave her to do the 1000 things he had to do. He wanted to buy her flowers, but if it meant leaving her it was a no. Instead, Tony texted Happy and asked him to pick up some white lilies from the hospital gift shop. Lilies were Pepper's favourite. She always used to have a large bouquet of them on her desk.

The last time Tony had bought her flowers had been after the death of her brother. Pepper had taken the week off work, and although he hated to admit it, Tony couldn't actually work without her. Instead of bringing in a temporary PA, or stealing someone else's, he had taken the week off too. That was one of the first times they had been in each other's company and not had to work. He had paid for them to fly out to Nebraska for the funeral, and for the hotel. He had made sure she still got paid for the days she had off and he had above all tried to make sure she wasn't drowning in misery. That week Tony Stark had tried his hardest to make her feel better, and it had worked. Pepper was back within the week. Five years had passed, and Tony hadn't got her flowers since.

Suddenly, the beeping on the heart monitor got a little faster. Tony jumped in surprise. Pepper was awake. She was lying on the bed sobbing. "Hey, Pepper don't cry." Tony muttered. He felt helpless. He honestly had no clue how to comfort her. "It's all okay now. You're safe. It's gonna be alright." Really, he was just spouting nonsense. Nothing he said had the power to make her feel better, but if was better than silence.

"Tony?" Pepper whispered incredulously. Her voice was hoarse and it cracked painfully. "Yeah, it's me Pep." He smiled.

"Where am I?" Instead of looking relieved, she looked terrified. "Tony I have to go back. They'll hurt you if they find out I'm not there."

"It's okay Pepper. You're in the hospital. Those assholes are in custody right now, and they won't ever get out if there if I get my way."

"Are you sure? They're so strong... They said if I ever got out they'd always find me... They'd always find me and hurt me again... Tony you can't let them find me... They said they'd hurt you too." Pepper was sobbing now. Her sentences were simple, but difficult to comprehend.

At that moment Tony wanted nothing more than to cradle Pepper in his arms. He wanted to protect her, to make her feel safe. But, he remembered how she had jerked away from him back at the warehouse. She was clearly terrified of physical contact, and rightfully so if the scars on her back were anything to go by.

"Pepper... I promise that no one will ever hurt you like that again. No one will so much as touch you the wrong way for as long as I am around. I will make sure you are the safest to person on the planet. You've been through so much, you deserve nothing but the best things that's are offered."

The terrified woman's in front of him did not stop crying. She did not stop shaking. She did not attempt to speak. However she did offer a timid smile, barely visible but Tony knew it was there. "Are you in pain?" He asked her gently. "Do you want some medicine, morphine or something?"

Pepper looked up."I want it to stop Tony. I just want it to stop."

* * *

 **A/N Hi everyone! This is my first ever multi-chapter fic and I hope you like it. I promise the angst will stop soon. This story focuses more on the getting over the event than the event itself, but I rated it an M to be on the safe side. Let me know what you think. I'll do my best to update soon. X**


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